The age old question keeps coming up, how do you retain website visitors, how do you make visitors return to your website? The answer should come as no surprise, fresh content. Content is truly king, the fresher the content the better the site. What many webmasters fail to realize is that there is an endless supply of content on the web that is freely available to webmasters.

Not only can public domain material be freely used and syndicated on websites, but a number of content publishers provide content in exchange for a link back to their websites. A variety of contents related to the website theme that is integrated into the website will attract the interest of both search engines and web surfers. The key to taking advantage of free content is integrating or including content that is directly related to the theme of the website.

1. Articles

Article repositories exist that categorizes content articles. Searching the repositories using keywords that are related to a websites theme will result in a wide variety of articles available for publication that are related to the site's existing web content. Articles in the repositories are available for syndication, which means webmasters can freely include the articles on their websites as long as they include the author resource box with valid links.

The contents of many RSS feeds can be syndicated. The added benefit of syndicating feeds is that they are frequently updated which will result in a steady stream of fresh changing content. In order to reap the benefits of syndicating RSS feeds, webmasters should use either an ASP script or PHP script to display the feeds contents as HTML.

Webmasters can navigate categories of RSS feed directories to locate related topic feeds or search for feeds using keywords.

Search the following directories to locate related RSS feeds:

RSS Network - http://www.rss-network.com

RSS Locator - http://www.rss-locator.com

Free script for displaying RSS feeds as HTML:

rss2html.php - http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm

3. Shareware Listings

Consider populating a website or section of a website with related niche software applications. Many software companies offer applications as free downloads. The downloads allow potential customers the opportunity to try an application prior to making a purchase decision. Categorizing and displaying software that relates to a website theme can generate a lot of interest. Most developers provide product descriptions and information in a PAD file which is simply XML. Developers can locate PAD files using the ASP site and the PAD kit can be used to display the contents of the PAD file.

PAD Kit - http://www.asp-shareware.org

4. Creative Commons

A Creative Commons license allows creators to place conditions on their copyrights. Many artists allow other publishers to use their creative and artwork, occasionally there are conditions that credit must be given, while others are available freely. Web publishers can find a lot of unique content, images and creative using the new Yahoo Creative Commons Search.

The Yahoo! Creative Commons Search service finds content across the Web that has a Creative Commons license.

Yahoo Creative Commons Search - http://search.yahoo.com/cc

More on Creative Commons - http://www.creativecommons.com

5. Forums

Consider creating a community forum where like-minded individuals or at the very least individuals with a common interest can discuss problems, concerns, related products or ideas. The forum posts will generate a fresh stream of new and self perpetuating website content.

Free Forum *note be sure to stay current on updates

PHPbb - http://www.phpbb.com

6. White Papers

Provide white papers, customer profiles or endorsements that detail how applications can be used in a specific industry. Creating a white paper section that explains how a specific product or service is used in a specific industry to solve a problem or increase productivity gives potential customers insight into how a specific service, product or technology will help in the course of a day.

Sample White Papers - http://www.notepage.net/whitepapers.htm

7. Directories

Creating a directory of related sites while time consuming can result in significant traffic. Directories typically are well respected resources and rank well in search engines.

Sample Niche Directories :

Podcasting Tools - http://www.podcasting-tools.com

Finance Investing Feed Directory - http://www.finance-investing.com

8. Newsletter Archive

If done properly online marketers see an almost instantaneous sales or traffic increases when they send newsletters but many do not benefit long term from the newsletter. Consider creating a newsletter archive, the content is already built, why not benefit from the potential traffic and unique phrases used, to attract new or potential customers?